Gore's China scandal

Charles R. Smith is a noted investigative journalist. For over 20 years, Smith has covered areas of national security and information warfare. He frequently appears on national television for the Fox network and is a popular guest on radio shows all over America.

According to Chinese General Sun Tzu “All war is based on deception.”
Tzu wrote those words over 2,000 years ago and his first rule of war
still applies today.

For example, a hidden November 1994 letter written by Democratic
National Committee donor Sanford Robertson to President Clinton that
clearly details the sale of Commerce trade trips for campaign donations.
Robertson was so bold as to include a telling “P.S.” where he notes for
Clinton that “Bob Rubin” turned out the “Silicon Valley” at a Robertson
sponsored fund-raiser that took in “$100,000″ for California Sen. Dianne
Feinstein. Of course, neither Robertson nor current Treasury Secretary
Rubin expected that letter to be revealed.

In November 1995, Vice President Al Gore called Sanford Robertson
from the White House and asked for a $100,000 donation. In January 1996
Robertson obliged and kicked in $80,000 soft and $20,000 in so-called
“hard” donations to the Clinton/Gore
campaign. The fact that Gore made the call from inside the White House
is the least of his legal problems.

In 1993 Clinton named Gore to head U.S. export policy for encryption
technology in a TOP SECRET order written by National Security advisor
Anthony Lake. A 1996 secret memo on a secret meeting of DCIA Deutch, FBI
Director Freeh and Attorney General
Janet Reno states: “The Vice President chairs the senior group that set
the Administration’s encryption policy; since February 1994 it has been
supported by a working group co-chaired by NSC, and OMB, composed of
NSA, CIA, FBI, State, Commerce (BXA, NIST), and Justice.”

In 1995 Sanford Robertson also had a big financial interest in the
U.S. computer security industry. Robertson’s investment firm had
hundreds of millions of dollars tied up in a
Massachusetts based computer company named Security Dynamics Inc. (SDI).
Thus, in 1995 Gore had direct control of policy that also affected
Robertson financially.

Security Dynamics was able to import computer security hardware
manufactured in China. SDI secured Hong Kong electronics maker RJP
Industries to produce electronic computer security cards for sale in
America. The Chinese manufactured cards are sold to
major defense contractors, medical institutions and the U.S. government.

Hong Kong millionaire Raymond Hung also owns RJP. Hung manufactured
the security cards in two factories leased directly from the China
National Electronics Import/Export Company (CNEIEC), a business owned by
the People’s Liberation Army. Thus, the computer security cards imported
and sold here in the U.S. were built on a Chinese Army assembly line.

Hung also owned a U.S. based company called Quorum International that
went bankrupt in 1996. The company left millions in bad debt in Arizona
and California. Yet, Hung was able to donate over a million dollars to
the Special Olympics, donate a temple to communist China, and have his
photo taken with Arnold Schwarzenegger all only days before declaring
bankruptcy.

Hung is also reported to have set up dozens of shell “front
companies” offshore. These companies allegedly sell cheap Chinese
products imported by Hung who declares bankruptcy, citing Chinese taxes
on the imports. Hung, of course, splits the “taxes” with the Chinese
government, and returns to America to purchase hard assets such as real
estate. Despite all this Hung remains un-investigated by the Clinton
administration.

Hung’s close working relationship with China and the Clinton
administration raises another question: Could there be a “secret” back
door embedded in imported hardware or software, waiting like a TROJAN
HORSE, brought safely inside the secure walls by a paying customer?
Could a hidden SNIFFER be hunting down passwords, code keys and
sensitive data?

“Chips are made of silicon,” explained Schwartau. “If you buy
hardware the only way to tell exactly how it works is with a destructive
test. You tear the chip apart, layer by layer.
This is not only difficult but expensive. Can it happen? Just look at
the multitude of hardware and software products maintained outside of
the United States. How many of them are ‘proprietary’ designs that have
never been viewed inside the U.S.?”

“It is possible,” agreed Forrest Mimms, a leader in the U.S.
electronics engineering and well-known author. Mimms is best known to
electronics hobbyists worldwide for his series of books that populate
Radio Shack.

“I would not be surprised to find a back door put in by the Chinese
government,” stated Mimms. “Go to Wal-Mart and you’ll find hundreds of
commercial electronics products made by Chinese government factories. In
fact, I would not be surprised to find
a back door put in by an independent [rogue or criminal] operation.”

“Yes. It is always possible to slip a Trojan horse into cryptography
products, both hardware and software,” stated Bruce Schneier, President
of Counterpane Systems and author of the best selling book on computer
security APPLIED CRYPTOGRAPHY.

“Unless the user takes the time to reverse-engineer the product –
much easier to do in software than in hardware — he is essentially
trusting that the manufacturer is behaving
honestly,” stated Schneier. “The NSA has been rumored to have convinced
several cryptography hardware companies world-wide to install Trojan
horses that effectively ‘leak’ secrets as the hardware is used.”

The Chinese army, Sanford Robertson, Al Gore and Ron Brown shared an
interest in computer security technology. California-based RSA Inc. is
the only U.S. company that has ever been able to secure any export deal
on encryption with China. Documentation held by the Commerce Department
and taken by former DNC fundraiser Ira Sockowitz shows that RSA was able
to obtain a trade deal with the Chinese government through a
Commerce sponsored trade conference to Beijing in October 1995. In fact,
both the Chairman of RSA, Jim Bidzos, and Ron Brown met in October of
1995 with Madam Wu Yi, head of China’s MOFTEC (Ministry of Foreign Trade
and Economic Cooperation).

Al Gore also had previous legal contact with RSA Inc. in 1994.
According to RSA CEO James Bidzos, in March 1994 Gore sent government
lawyers to RSA in a failed effort to purchase patents on encryption
technology held by his company. Curiously, the
envoy Gore selected to send was John Huang’s boss, Commerce counsel
Ginger Lew. Even more curious is the fact that Lew claimed to know
nothing about encryption in her deposition for Judicial Watch.

Her lack of computer security knowledge is puzzling because Lew also
possessed a 1994 document detailing penetrations of U.S. government
computers using “back-door” and “SNIFFER” programs installed by unknown
hackers. The document was returned in
response to a Freedom of Information Request. Ms. Lew currently works at
the Small Business Administration and has refused my request for an
interview.

In February 1996, only days after Robertson had kicked in his
$100,000 to the Clinton/Gore campaign, RSA announced the China
encryption export deal. In April 1996, Robertson’s Security Dynamics
Inc. bought RSA for $296 million above the stock value. Robertson’s
investment firm was paid $2 million just to write the merger document.
Thus, Robertson financially benefited from the same company that Gore
had previously engaged in secret government negotiations. Robertson
gained $2 million for a $100,000 investment in less than 90 days.

How deeply involved was Robertson with party officials? Perhaps the
real question is which party? Democrat or Communist? In an April 1994
letter Robertson reminded Brown of scheduled money-raising events for
the DNC and of his efforts for DNC candidates. “P.S.” Robertson wrote to
Brown. “It has been fund raising season out here for the Senate and
we’ve had events at our home for Feinstein, Lieberman, and Cooper. I
wish you were still head of the DNC for the December elections, but you
are obviously doing a great job at Commerce.”

In the same letter Robertson also noted his influence in the Chinese
communist party. In April 1994 Robertson informed Brown of his
successful effort to hire the son of a major Chinese Communist leader.
“We have recently hired Bo Feng the son of Feng Zhijun the vice chairman
of the China Democratic League and a member of the Standing Committee of
the National People’s Congress.”

On August 18, 1998, this author filed suit in Federal Court against
the Clinton administration for illegally withholding documents. The
documents in question were discovered at the Commerce Department in
response to a Freedom of Information
Request on Loral CEO Bernard Schwartz and DNC donor Sanford Robertson.

At first, the Commerce Department refused to release the “22″
documents because they were being withheld by unspecified “other
agencies” for “consultation”. On May 18, 1998 the Commerce Department
released one of the 22 documents. The single document returned was the
bio of W. Bowman Cutter, deputy assistant to the president for economic
policy, written by the White House.

“Bo” Cutter, “Bob” Rubin, Al Gore and Ron Brown were all tasked to
encryption export policy in the 1993 Top Secret order from Bill Clinton
written by Tony Lake. Bo, Bob, Al and Ron were part of the encryption
task force detailed in the 1996 CIA/FBI/DOJ meeting. “Bo” Cutter’s boss,
now Treasury Secretary “Bob” Rubin, raised the 1994 $100,000 from
Sanford Robertson while working inside the White House — just like Al
Gore in 1995. All of these fine gentlemen were also making secret export
policy — including Sanford Robertson.

In addition, according to the Commerce Department FOIA officer, the
remaining 21 documents were being withheld by the White House. However,
the White House is NOT an agency. My source on this legal “Catch-22″ is
the White House legal counsel for Vice
President Al Gore. In response to a 1997 FOIA request Vice President
Gore’s Deputy Counsel Elizabeth Brown wrote “Please be advised that FOIA
applies to only records maintained by ‘agencies’ within the Executive
Branch. The Office of the President and the Vice President … are not
‘agencies’ for the purposes of this law. Therefore, your request must be
denied.”

The Clinton administration caved instead of facing embarrassment in
court. The remaining documents withheld by the White House have been
released.

Both Bernard Schwartz and Sanford Robertson were given the detailed
dossiers of the Chinese leadership from President Jiang Zemin, and
MOFTEC’s Madam Wu Yi — down to the local communist mayor of Shanghai.
The new documents include information on such communist officials as Hu
Qili — Minister of Electronics Industry — a former radical Red Guard
member of the Chinese Youth movement. According to the hidden documents,
Qili argues “that military electronics are a key technology necessary
for
winning modern warfare.”

According to Sun Tzu, all war is based on deception. War, according
to Von Clausewitz, is also merely an extension of politics. The war of
Clinton deception continues to this day. The administration and its
agencies are continuing to withhold documents from this author, the
House National Security Committee, and the House Government Oversight
Committee. The White House is engaged in a cover-up of illegal
activities. Evidence hidden in a deliberate and planned scheme to
conceal crimes by officials currently in power.